Carina Tyrrell, a Cambridge medical student and finalist in the Miss England
beauty pageant, tells Radhika Sanghani she can help more patients as
a doctor if she becomes known for her looks

Carina Tyrrell, AKA Miss Cambridgeshire, is one of 15 finalists for theMiss England beauty pageanttaking this place this weekend.Like all the other women competing for the title, she’s young, very pretty, and passionate about Miss England. The only difference is she’s also a medical student at Cambridge University.

It's unusual for a contestant to be studying for their final exams whilst partaking in swimsuit rounds (which Tyrrell won), and it makes me wonder why she even is doing this. As an intelligent woman, surely she recognises that this competition is based on judging women for their looks?

She and I are both 24 years old and I later we find out we actually have friends in common, but neither I nor any of those friends would ever take part in a beauty pageant. I want to know why Tyrrell is.

It’s the first thing I ask her when we meet, but already I can see how different we are. She’s wearing a knee-length wrap dress, and even though she’s late, it’s because she’s just come from a work-related meeting at a hospital about improving public health, of course. While she looks perfectly groomed and sits with her hands clasped, I’m slouching in Primarni's finest with chipped nail polish.

She looks every inch the beauty queen, and when I ask her why she’s doing the pageant, she gives me the perfect Miss England response: “The Miss England pageant is really looking for a role model to represent the country. She has to be really well-rounded and that’s what attracts me. You can do a lot with that title and use it to benefit many people which means a lot to me as a doctor [to be].”

I’m almost expecting her to add that she wants ‘world peace’. She doesn’t – but does say she eventually wants to work as a doctor abroad for an organisation likeMedecins San Frontieres, which says it all.

'Let's use beauty'

When I ask her whether it bothers her that the pageant focuses on women’s looks and bodies, she says it doesn’t. It turns out that Tyrrell is a pragmatist who has recognised that this is just the way the world works, and she can use it to her advantage. “I think it’s part of the society that we live in – people naturally like beautiful things,” she tells me.

“It’s part of who we are, we like things that look attractive. You’re never going to get away from the fact that people are attracted to beautiful things. I think that can be used to the advantage of other things such as charity. Let’s use beauty and do something with it.”

She doesn’t see anything wrong with using her looks, so long as she achieves her goal of spreading awareness about the issues she cares about: public health, homelessness and, of course, charity in general.

“You could say would anybody ever know about me if I was just in a hospital working?” she says, defending her reasoning. “I might be able to do great things for my patients, which I still hope I will do in the future, but it’s the reality isn’t it? It’s a way to be able to have access to the public, with beauty being so in the public eye, and using the public image to do good things.

“Why not use [your beauty] for that purpose? I’d much rather someone use it for a good purpose than somebody who believes that they’re pretty and isn’t doing anything with it.”

Feminist Miss England

It’s not surprising that she lists Angelina Jolie and Kate Middleton as her role models, because both are beautiful woman in the public eye who use that to their advantage in doing work for charity.

However Tyrrell does surprise me when she tells me she’s a feminist - most feminists I know don’t really hold beauty pageants in much regard.

Angelina Jolie at the summit on warzone rape

“I strongly believe in women’s rights,” she says. “I think women are equal to men, men are equal to women. But you know, I have a right to participate in a beauty pageant when I want to. I believe that this beauty pageant is encouraging girls to be well rounded. It’s saying to women, be charitable, think of others, be healthy and sporty, if you’re talented at something, great, and if you want to represent your country, take on a leadership role, do it.”

Those are unquestionably positive goals, but I’m not fully sure that a beauty pageant is the way to do it. Contestants are typically very thin, generically pretty and even though Tyrrell stresses that looks are only a small element of the pageant, they do still play a large role to the audience.

“To a certain extent women are still objectified,” she admits, “but this is why I’m participating in the Miss England beauty pageant because it’s showing it’s not all about looks. I’m trying to raise awareness I suppose that there’s so much more to it – a girl wouldn’t be able to win the competition just by being pretty.

“She’d be more likely to win it from all her other attributes, than her looks. I’m obviously not the prettiest girl in Cambridgeshire. It’s really about wanting to be a role model and wanting to do good by being that role model.”

It's still all about looks

The swimsuit round of Miss Universe 2010

I can’t disagree with her motives but I just wonder how many young people watching the show are impressed with the contestants’ charity work over their sparkly dresses and unattainable bodies.

When I put this to her, Tyrrell does consider having a pageant that didn’t focus on looks at all, but says: “Then we also do lose part of what it’s all about which is being able to raise awareness. Would people be so interested if it was a pageant just about a well-rounded personality?”

Probably not, which is precisely my point. As much as she tries to make the pageant about charity, sport and being well-rounded, it will always be primarily about beauty. But so long as this can be used to advocate “all the positive things in life – charity, kindness, being healthy,” Tyrrell doesn't mind.

The only thing that would bother her would be if her fellow students ever made “horrible comments about the photographs". But then, in true Miss England style, she adds a disclaimer: “At the end of the day everyone has their own opinions and should be allowed to express them, within reason. They’re entitled to their opinions but I’d hope they wouldn’t say anything disrespectful.” Readers, be warned.